US mission to evacuate stranded Yazidi in Iraq now "unlikely"

Euronews

The US says a mission to evacuate stranded members of the minority Yazidi community in Irag is “far less likely” as the humanitarian situation is not as bad as they thought.

Several thousand refugees still remain trapped on Iraq’s Sinjar Mountain.

US officials say the situation has been helped by dropping food and water supplies, and Kurdish forces from neighbouring Syria opening a corridor to the mountain, allowing around 45-thousand to escape.

Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled the advance of the Islamic State (IS) jihadists almost two weeks ago. They took refuge in the remote desert Sinjar mountains in northwestern Iraq close to the border with Syria.

Hundreds continue to arrive at refugee camps in the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region. Most of them walked for 12 hours with no food or water to get to the camp

The United Nations says it will provide more support to those who have escaped Sinjar and to the 400 thousand other Iraqis who have fled violence since June.